Went riding with Handscreate today and now I have a new knee pain - the pain from doing blues and diamonds over and over! All that bending is a new pain now! lol

I know sometimes I am still slidding, but it seems way better than what I was doing before. Any comments???? Next year I want to work on trying to not open my left shoulder on toeside turns and try not to make so many turns on the blue runs. I've been trying to find a board where I feel confident to excel on and now try to fix my problem areas and I think I finally found the perfect board! (for now! lol)

Vicki

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I wasn't trying to cause you pain, I just really thought pushing you to ride some steeper terrain would force you (in the instructing sense) up on your edges more & get to really dig into your turns, hopefully getting you to bend your knees a little more thru turns - which I started to notice you did do towards the end of our hour together as we went down that last run (7 down I think?)

It was great meeting you & G. D & I loved your costumes! So glad she spotted you 2 in the lift line.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snowolf

Well done Vicki!

Looks like spending some time with Handscreate helped you a lot. We can talk or type for hours but nothing beats one on one coaching...

It totally makes sense to me with regard to the change in boards. Many people find the rocker between the feet profile a bit too squirrely for their liking and on those firm groomers, I also enjoy both my full camber deck and my Rossi Angus profile like your new board. In addition, a directional board will always handle cruising like this a little better than a twin. Once you get a little better and gain more confidence however, you will like the playful nature of that Ollie Pop, especially in powder or good soft corn snow. For now, I think that Rossi is ideal for your riding style.

As for your stance angles, this also makes total sense. I am riding with my angles at 15/-18 partly because it makes my knees feel better and also because I have a natural twist in my legs or hips. Not sure where or why, but I definitely have a slight left rotation in my hips (something AASI can`t quite seem to understand). So definitely ride what is most comfortable to you. I might suggest trying to widen your stance just a tad now that you have discovered this. Your stance is a bit narrow, and if you can widen it a little without causing pain, it can really help with balance and stability.

I really liked on your blue and black run that we can see the bottom of your board.... This means you are really starting to use your edges more and transitioning to a more carved technique. The progression you have made this year is really impressive.

Some goals for next year to improve even more:

Turn your head when making turns from toe to heel and heel to toe. Currently, I do not see you turning your head much. This is is especially effective for the toe to heel transition. Looking over your front shoulder to spot the place you want to turn to really sets your body up well to make this turn (it also helps you spot rude, inconsiderate skiers who think they they need to pass as close as possible to you).

We will work on your unweighting technique. If you watch closely, you are doing an up unweight to switch edges. This works okay, but a down unweight is better for carving. If you look closely, you will see that you hop up slightly, then switch to the new edge and settle back to your neutral position. Ideally, you will find doing the opposite will feel better and also really help you power through your carve better.

To do this, drop down lower to change edges, then gradually rise up through the turn. This rising through the turn actually will help you power through the turn and maintain edge hold better on those icy patches.

You already caught this, but yes, work on closing that front shoulder a bit to help you with your toe side turns and watch the back hand. While "throwing" your shoulder into each turn is not an ideal way to snowboard, positioning them in the direction of the turn adds a little extra rotational force to help add power to your turn.

We will talk more about starting to use fore-aft movements next year to also help you power through the carves better and make riding steeper terrain a piece of cake.

Greta job and like I said, your progress this season is awesome. Good job. I am still working on some ideas we have discussed via PM and will get in touch with you soon.

Thanks Snowolf, I tried to give Vicki as much input as I could in the little time we had together. Time flies when you're having fun! I also suggested she widen her stance a little more for better control, etc, but we discussed her knee pain & I think she needs to look at some Burton or Forum bindings with Auto Cant technology as opposed to a binding with a set canted footbed to help support her knees in the widened stance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mixie

I take it none of you have ever visited Los Angeles? Being self centered and self absorbed is not just tolerated it's celebrated....sigh

Vicki, I love seeing your videos. I learned to ride at Snow Summit on the same runs. It's a bit of a drive for me, so I don't go there much anymore. Next season I'd be happy to ride up hill and run interference for you, I have no problem body checking an out of control skier

Also, which black run is that in the video? it looks like you were on miracle mile and rode that back down to the bottom of the hill? Do you ever ride chair 5 and 6? It's a little steeper over there but in my experience it's better as far as avoiding people. It's all blue and black but nothing you couldn't handle. They don't always spin those chairs but there is a traverse across the top. Might not be possible this late in the year

I somehow attracted most of the d-bags when I rode with her, haha. I think she's a magnet for them in all honesty. It must be that positive personality that attracts them...

We did traverse across to the left side of the mountain for a couple runs & even though Vicki was a little nervous about riding the cat track across, she did a fantastic job of handling it. I love that side of the mountain so much, even if it is just a 3 min or so ride to the lift.

[QUOTE=firstx1017;501497]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mixie

Also, which black run is that in the video? it looks like you were on miracle mile and rode that back down to the bottom of the hill? Do you ever ride chair 5 and 6? It's a little steeper over there but in my experience it's better as far as avoiding people. It's all blue and black but nothing you couldn't handle. They don't always spin those chairs but there is a traverse across the top. Might not be possible this late in the year QUOTE]

Hi Mixie - the blue run in the video is the bottom of Miracle Mile and the Easy Black Run is the Diamond Section in the middle of Miracle Mile - where you can take a blue run to the left or take the black run on the right - this is the right which is the black run.

Chair 5 hasn't worked in 2 years I believe. At least they never had it working this whole year and we've been up there every weekend. Chair 6 is for the harder Diamond and Double Diamond runs - not willing to do those yet! My husband tried the Wall 4 times two weeks ago and fell every time. One time he even fell twice! lol

I have major problems with getting off the lifts on Chair 3 (Ego Trip run) and Chair 10 (Perfect Pitches run) I fall everytime so that it makes it no fun to do those runs anymore. I CAN do okay on Chair 7 (7-down run) but it is such a short run to have to deal with that chairlift stress!

So I start off on Summit Run in the morning to warm up until all the crazy people show up. Then we go over to Miracle Mile and then we head over and take Log Chute all the way down. The end of that is a Diamond also so I get my diamond practice from the middle of Miracle Mile and the end of Log Chute. By noon this old body has had it and has to save something for the next day as we board both Saturday and Sundays every weekend up there!

D & I rode the wall twice & I ate it at least twice, haha. Really I just washed out in a toe side & heel side turn, which resulted in me sliding on my ass for about 15ft until I could get a good dig into the snow. I feel bad for whatever skier hit that massive speed bump I created in the middle of it. D had a good laugh at my attempt to go down it with some speed the 1st time & watching me slide on my ass. The toe side wash out was pretty minimal & I was able to recover relatively quickly, thankfully.